Shabbat Candle Times

Boker Tov: Good Morning!

How many times have you heard the saying, "Today is the first day of the rest of your life?" A lot? Me too. But like all sayings, it has meaning to it. As traditional Jews, the first thing we do when we wake up (before we get out of bed) is begin the Modeh Ani; a short, two-line prayer which opens by referring to Adonai as the eternal and living creator. It goes on to say that sleep was a minor death, in which our soul spent the night with G-d. It concludes by thanking the Divine for returning our soul back to us in a pure state, allowing us to live another day. Its also cool to know that G-d's proper name (Adonai / YHVH) isnt used in this prayer because the Rabbis believed it improper to speak G-d's name before ritually washing the hands.

Another morning prayer, Elohai Neshama, goes on to speak about how our souls are given back to us:

Elohai neshama shenatata bi t'horah hi.
My G-d - the soul You have given me is pure.
You created it, You formed it, You breathed it into me, You guard it within me. You will, in the future, take it from me, and restore it to me at a future time. So long as this soul is within me, I thank You, Adonai, My G-d, G-d of my ancestors, Master of all creation, Sovereign of all souls. Praised are You, Adonai, Who restores the soul to the lifeless and exhausted.

Jewish belief is one that teaches us that our souls are always pure because they are a direct extension from G-d. Without G-d, our souls would not be able to sustain a physical form. So each morning, let us remember to always give thanks for a new day of love, a new day of peace and a new day of life.

Baruch HaBa B'Shem Adonai

 {Blessed is the Name of Adonai}

Being A Jew In A Christian Community

Having lived in a very nice area that had a lot of Jews in Los Angeles, California, I was very comfortable in my wearing a kippah everywhere, reading Torah on the train, and letting my Star of David necklace show all the time. I was able to go to the nearest bakery and request challah before Shabbat and was able to find a kosher deli within a five mile radius. Needed to find a Torah Study group? No problem, the nearest Shul was either in walking distance or a short drive away.

Then, we moved to Virginia and everything changed (Now I know how my ancestors felt when they were put in exile).

It is becoming a shtick, the many double-takes that I get when people see a mixed individual with a Star of David necklace. Or wearing my kippah into the movie theatre. But I see this move as a sign: a sign to study more, care more and engage more. I meet the stares of confused lookers with a kind smile and a quick and gentle wave. And when someone asks me, "What does that necklace mean?" or "Are you really Jewish?" the answer is always the proud and honest truth; 'Yes, I am Jewish'.  

Being Jewish means that I believe in One G-d only because the Torah states that there should be no other god(s) before Adonai (this is why I tell people Jews and Christians do not have the same deity since Christians believes that Jesus is their god). This number one mitzvah (commandment) has been a past debate with one of my best friends who is a deeply devoted Christian. And the reason why we are still best friends is because we know that our religions are just a piece of who we are, not the entire package. But Jewish teachings tell us that no other being participated in the work of creation. That when G-d declared to G-d's angels 'Let us make man...' we were created b'tzelem elohim; created in the image of the Divine (godly & angelically). Everything in the universe was created by G-d and only by G-d. Judaism completely rejects the dualistic notion that evil was created by Satan or any variation thereof. All comes from G-d. As Isaiah said , "I am the L-rd, and there is none else. I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create evil. I am the L-rd, that does all these things." (Is.45:6-7).

Being Jewish means that I believe the energy of the Universe, being so vast and deep, is interchangeable with G-d. G-d is all things and in all things. Being Jewish means that our greatest gift and our greatest challenge is free will. This is what makes us separate from angels, who have no other job but to continually sing praises. But we have the angelic nature deeply embedded into us which Adonai hopes for us to tap into. Even when things go wrong in our life, G-d wants us to say something- even if it is the only time G-d hears from us. Our feelings are G-ds feelings and with the comfort of knowing the Divine knows every part of us, we can understand that everything happens for a reason.

As a Jew, I believe the mashiach (the anointed one) has not come to us yet. This is why Judaism rejects the idea of Jesus being the mashiach since he did not fulfill any of the messianic prophecies (point of reference: Isaiah11:1-9; Jeremiah 23:5-6, 30:7-10, 33:14-16; Ezekiel 34:11-31, 37:21-28; Hosea 3:4). Although the Greek Testament traces the genealogy of Joseph (husband of Mary) back to David, it then claims that Jesus resulted from a virgin birth and that Joseph was not his father. Jesus also didn't return peace to Israel or bring the Jews back to their homeland. Rabbi Moses ben Nahman Girondi (also known as Nahmanides) noted that the prophetic promises of the Messianic Age, a reign of universal peace and justice, had not yet been fulfilled. On the contrary, since before and during the appearance of Jesus, the world had been filled with violence and injustice, and among all denominations the Christians were the most warlike. There are no mentions in the Torah of a second coming needed to fulfil the prophecies but that all the prophecies will be fulfilled the first time the mashiach appears to the world, ushering us into the World To Come. The mashiach will come to the world when we either need the mashiach the most or deserve the mashiach because we have learned to be pure of heart.
{Jews For Judaism has more on why the Mashiach has not come yet: The Jewish Concept of Messiah }

In this country which self proclaims to be a Christian nation, as a Jew, we must never let our voice be drowned out by others. Everyone should be open to learning about each other and about new things in order to understand and eliminate ignorance. We should work to tikkun olam (repair the world) in order to create justice and peace to our homes. It has been said that in every generation, a person is born with the potential to be the mashiach; so let us tap into our inner angel and illuminate the world with our godly light. Only in this act of love and kindness will we become closer and closer to Adonai.

L'dor V'dor: From Generation to Generation

This past Shabbat, we read the Parshat Matot (meaning rods) which tells the tale of Moses instructing the head of the tribes about oaths and vows. You can read it starting from BaMidbar (Numbers) chapter 30:2 till chapter 32:42. {Keep in mind that the Christian bible and the Hebrew bible arrange their books and number their chapters very differently.} So we read during this study about the many times in the Torah that treats women vastly different than men.

The man has only one verse dedicated to his oath taking: Basically, if a man makes a vow, its set. However, the next six (6) verses are all about how a woman can’t make a vow without her father or husbands approval. This is where we begin our chat.

For countless years, women have been treated differently than men. It dates back all the way, apparently, to biblical times. Women couldn’t pray with men, women couldn’t converse with a group of men, and so on. However, through all the Torahs many ancient laws, we must separate the then from the now. Today we must study Torah to enlighten our spiritual lives whereas our ancestors carried out the literal words of the Torah. Would you stone your child for back talk? Would you hang your neighbor for wearing cotton? The answer, I hope, is no.

Our ancestors were charged with a very rare and unique task; to keep B’nai Israel alive. Today, we are charged with keeping our WORLD alive. After the destruction of the Second Temple, ritual Judaism was destroyed too. We no longer needed to sacrifice the lamb for our wrong doings. Now we are charged with coming directly to G-d for our needs and confessions. No middle man needed. Our generation now has the task of repairing this broken world which our ancestors fought to keep alive. Our vows to the world should be kept to the best of our abilities so that we don’t end up like the planet Mars.

This generation is the only one we have and it should be sacred and protected. We must educate ourselves with the problems of the past so we don’t repeat them anymore in the future. Our world is a very precious one and it is the only one. Let us try to learn to understand the differences in the world, even if we don’t ever completely understand it. What a person believes, how a person worships or prays or how one lives one’s life shouldn’t be a concern of ours. Our own lives were given to us to perfect, not anyone else’s.

So let’s make our generation the generation of change. The generation that creates a more peaceful world for the generation to come.

Baruch HaBa B'Shem Adonai

 {Blessed is the Name of Adonai}

V'ahavtah L'rey-acha Kamocha: Love Your Neighbor As Yourself

I have many friends who feel religion is a pointless, mind-slavery waste of time. How could anyone worship a god who is vengeful and a vicious warlord? How can people believe in a book that is full of contradictions? And these friends of mine have every right to feel the way they feel. Especially after the many hate filled protests of Fred Phelp’s congregation or from Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss and his anti-zionist, anti-Israel, burning the Israeli flag beliefs. Why should my friend’s feel the need to believe in a god who can condone such ignorance and baseless hatred?

They shouldn’t. Because that god isn’t real. That god isn’t the god that is illuminated in love and peace. The One who grants peace to the high heavens and to us here is the one who is truly in existence. There is no such thing as ‘love hating’ anything. It would be a lie. It would be an oxymoron. Everything is created in the Divine’s image, B'tzelem Elohim, and everything is given the upmost respect from the Divine. We, as humans, pick and choose how to deal with our fate and our emotions. We, as humans, choose our actions and our worship. We, as flawed humans, carry out the positive or the negative. G-d just shows us the path. The Holy One, baruch sh'mo, is based solely in love and acceptance for all people, and that is the true meaning of the Divine. The Divine cannot not dwell in hate, ignorance or any variation of the two because we as humans are the ones who act on such evil.

And this brings about the next question: what about the events in the Bible that portray the Holy One to be a vengeful deity? Well, my rabbi once explained it like this: the bible is not true but it is truth. The events, the stories, the fables in the bible can’t be proven to have happened until King David. So it makes them not true. But the underlying principles, the concepts of the stories, the moral of each tale are what makes it truth. We all can relate to a personal Egypt in which enslaved us and then we were freed from. Whether it is drug abuse, alcoholism, self- homophobia, etc, we all can relate these sufferings to the Passover story. There’s a saying during this festival ‘What G-d did for me, when I came out of Egypt.’ The Divine showed us the way, and we freed ourselves with the help of the Divine. No one can prove that the world was made at the drop of a dime in 6 days but it gives us a guideline into a period where we work, satisfy others, or make a paycheck and a period where we relax and meditate and soak in our surroundings. The Unitarian Universalists church believes that the Christian Bible, or the Torah, or the Qu’ran or any other account of human experience, not to be either an infallible guide or the exclusive source of truth. They respect the sacred literature of other religions. They aspire to truth as wide as the world, they look to find truth anywhere, universally. And it is in this acceptance of all people, this respect for all religions, other than their own, that I see G-d. Because their love for their fellow neighbor shines through. In Judaism, the Nisim B’chol Yom: For Daily Miracles, there is a passage that shows me G-d and unity. “I am a Jew because in EVERY place where suffering weeps, the Jew weeps. I am a Jew because at EVERY time when despair cries out, the Jew hopes. I am a Jew because, above humanity, image of the divine Unity, the Jew places the unity which is divine.”

To love your fellow man as yourself is not so difficult to achieve but for some it is the hardest thing to do. If we look inside ourselves, cleanse the negative energy from our spirit, educate our ignorance and embrace the love that is surrounding us, we can achieve countless miracles in our lives. We can see love like we have never seen it before. In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, “One day, ALL of G-d’s children, white and black, Jews and Gentiles will join hands and sing in that old spiritual song- free at last, free at last, thank G-d almighty, we are free at last.” It doesn’t matter what you believe, what you worship, or what you practice, as long as the love in your life shines through, all good things will come your way.

Baruch HaBa B'Shem Adonai: 

{Blessed is the Name of Adonai}

Baruch Haba: Welcome!

Shalom, chaverim! Its feels so wonderful to be back online and to share my thoughts, views and teachings with those that I love and pray for. You! I have reinvented myself to become a higher person than I am now. I have dedicated my time to the study of Torah and the way of Jewish life. It has brought me such joy, peace and tranquility ever since I have re-embraced my Jewish Heritage which dates back further than the Holocaust, thanks to Ancestry.com and my Aunt Vickie.

I am studying Jewish law/history in hopes to be ordained as a Rabbi before I reach the young age of 32. I am proud to belong to the people Israel, whos' name means “one who wrestles with G-d...and prevails.” For though we have loved humanity, we have never stopped wrestling with it, challenging the idols of every age. And though we have loved G-d with an everlasting love, we have never stopped wrestling with G-d nor G-d  with us.

I love my husband of 4 years; Garison Wash, my family and my faith, Judaism. Nothing has made me happier and more complete than anything in life. I am a Jew because, being a child of my people, I have heard the call to add my chapter to its unfinished story. I am a stage on its journey, a connecting link between the generations. The dreams and hopes of my ancestors live on in me, and I am the guardian of their trust, now and for the future.

I am fighting with the millions in hopes of Marriage Equality nationwide. I stand by the members of the gay community in the fight against homophobia, injustice and religious persecution. Being gay is not a sin. Promoting hate and bigotry and telling LGBT teens their lives don’t matter is. Being gay is not a choice. Using a religion to batter and beat and hurt is. Being gay is not wrong. Letting raging bigots use media to promote an agenda of fear and lies is.

So I hope you stick around for many wonderful and thoughtful blogs straight from the Aspiring Rabbi's mind.

Baruch HaBa B'Shem Adonai: 
{Blessed is the Name of Adonai},

Aspiring Rabbi Jack Wash